Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Family Computer is Reborn
Last week, during normal operation our family computer gave a dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Sometimes a simple reboot solves the problem, but no such luck this time. I tried various diagnostic techniques over the next few days, but with no luck.
Jumping to the end of the story, the problem turned out to be a memory module that went bad. I have no idea why, but the diagnosis is 100% certain. Unfortunately, I believed that the problem was related to the hard drive before the real problem was determined. I reformatted the drive and re-installed the operating system before determining the real problem.
Even with a good data backup, it will take a long time to recover everything on that computer. Hayley has been helping me with cleaning out the dust and getting everything plugged back in again. Wow was there a lot of dust - maybe part of the explanation of the memory failure? If nothing else, it was a good exploration into the guts of a computer for Hayley and a good memory upgrade for the computer that should extend its useful life.
Jumping to the end of the story, the problem turned out to be a memory module that went bad. I have no idea why, but the diagnosis is 100% certain. Unfortunately, I believed that the problem was related to the hard drive before the real problem was determined. I reformatted the drive and re-installed the operating system before determining the real problem.
Even with a good data backup, it will take a long time to recover everything on that computer. Hayley has been helping me with cleaning out the dust and getting everything plugged back in again. Wow was there a lot of dust - maybe part of the explanation of the memory failure? If nothing else, it was a good exploration into the guts of a computer for Hayley and a good memory upgrade for the computer that should extend its useful life.
Monday, June 15, 2009
A lot is happening, but not much worth posting...
Life has been really busy, but it is hard to make it interesting enough to post. Here are a few notes nevertheless.
Volleyball Season came and went. I had a lively bunch of girls that made a pretty good team, but we had an ok season. I don't have stats, but we were right around 50% on our win:loss record. The important thing is that I am pretty sure that the girls had fun.
Celeste had a birthday last week and we celebrated yesterday. It was a low key day with all of the kids around. We helped her do some work around the house, played some games, saw a movie (Night at the Museum 2).
Work is busy, but not overly so. My European customers are getting ready for the July/August vacation season. They sure seem to have the right idea about vacation time over there! Even the newest employees get somewhere around 3 weeks of vacation per year plus a ton of holidays.
I took a day trip to Arizona last week to see a customer. That trip reminded me that I am very lopsided on my international vs domestic travel. In the past 2 years I have travelled to 2 US customers (Arizona, Texas) and a whole bunch of international customers. For the foreseeable future, that will remain the same. My next planned trip is to Finland in September. The international travel has been an interesting turn in my career. It takes extra travel time that would have been much more difficult when the kids were younger. I have enjoyed the chance to see some parts of the world that I would not otherwise get to.
School gets out next week for the girls. Hayley gets out a day early since the 7th graders start a day early for orientation to the new school (7th grade is the start of Middle School here). That means helping with final homework and studying for finals. However, it also means that my mornings will be my own again instead of helping get ready and driving kids to school!
I'll try to dig up some interesting stuff (at least stuff that I find more interesting) next time.
Volleyball Season came and went. I had a lively bunch of girls that made a pretty good team, but we had an ok season. I don't have stats, but we were right around 50% on our win:loss record. The important thing is that I am pretty sure that the girls had fun.
Celeste had a birthday last week and we celebrated yesterday. It was a low key day with all of the kids around. We helped her do some work around the house, played some games, saw a movie (Night at the Museum 2).
Work is busy, but not overly so. My European customers are getting ready for the July/August vacation season. They sure seem to have the right idea about vacation time over there! Even the newest employees get somewhere around 3 weeks of vacation per year plus a ton of holidays.
I took a day trip to Arizona last week to see a customer. That trip reminded me that I am very lopsided on my international vs domestic travel. In the past 2 years I have travelled to 2 US customers (Arizona, Texas) and a whole bunch of international customers. For the foreseeable future, that will remain the same. My next planned trip is to Finland in September. The international travel has been an interesting turn in my career. It takes extra travel time that would have been much more difficult when the kids were younger. I have enjoyed the chance to see some parts of the world that I would not otherwise get to.
School gets out next week for the girls. Hayley gets out a day early since the 7th graders start a day early for orientation to the new school (7th grade is the start of Middle School here). That means helping with final homework and studying for finals. However, it also means that my mornings will be my own again instead of helping get ready and driving kids to school!
I'll try to dig up some interesting stuff (at least stuff that I find more interesting) next time.
Labels: Bethany, Family, Hayley, Volleyball
